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Daily Life

I’m back to work!

Posted on April 12, 2018

This is my “excited to be back to work” face! Now that Isabelle is getting older and (slightly) less demanding, I decided it was time! I feel like when I’m working, even part-time, I’m my best self. Something about having deadlines actually helps me be more productive. I think maybe knowing I have less time makes me less likely to procrastinate? Not to mention my boss is pretty awesome and nothing beats working from home!  Feeling like a #girlboss today!

Daily Life

My Baby Girl is 3!!

Posted on March 29, 2018

My baby girl is 3! It seems like forever ago, and yet only yesterday, that we brought you home from the hospital. And we were TERRIFIED. What do we do with this tiny human?! We worried about everything! (Or I did, rather.) Is she getting enough milk? She’s been sleeping for too long, is she breathing? Is her poop supposed to look like this? (I can’t even count the amount of photos of baby poop I looked at…)

What do we do with this tiny human?!

I remember the colic days, and the guilt I had because I didn’t know how to help you. And then between 3 and 4 months the colic got better, and you started to develop more of a personality. Between 6 and 7 months you got your first 2 teeth, learned to crawl, sit up, and pull to stand all within a few weeks. And you let us know that your brain was BUSY! Those were rough nights for sleep!

You got your first 2 teeth, learned to crawl, sit up, and pull to stand all within a few weeks.

Your development sped up after that. Feeding yourself, walking, and then saying a few words like Mama, Dada, and Up. (And waffle shortly after that. Waffles are important, I get it.) By 18 months you were hiking short hikes with me and climbing out of your crib with ease (and we started to realize you were going to be a strong willed child!) I still remember the first time you said “I love you”, and I watch the video of it sometimes and smile!

By 18 months you were hiking short hikes with me and climbing out of your crib with ease

Right after you turned 2, Isabelle was born. It was a big adjustment for everybody. We still have trouble sharing attention sometimes, but you are the most amazing big sister to her. I love watching you two play together and seeing how much you love each other. Also around 2, you language exploded! You went from short phases to full thoughts and sentences almost overnight! One day you were saying “Boo please!” for Blue’s Clues, and the next it was “I want to watch Trolls. Not Christmas Trolls, I want to watch regular Trolls.”

You went from short phases to full thoughts and sentences almost overnight! 

I can’t believe the amazing young lady you are turning into right before my eyes. I’m going to end here, because I am rambling and it’s getting hard to see through my tears, but I love you more than anything Katie Kay. You are so strong and powerful and I know you’re going to do great things. Never let that light inside you stop shining.

Daily Life

Nature or Nuture?

Posted on March 28, 2018
Nature or nurture? What do you think makes your littles the wonderful people they are (and maybe sometimes the not-so-wonderful people. Come on, we were all thinking it!) If you’re anything like me, you want to think it’s nuture (environment) when it comes to the good things. Katie loves fitness because we model the importance of taking care of your body, Katie loves books because we read to her so much, Katie’s good at building things because we play lego with her all the time.
What do you think makes your littles the wonderful people they are?
And then the bad things we want to believe are all nature (or genetics.) Katie is naturally stubborn (not our fault), Katie has trouble listening (must be in her genes), Katie has a hard time sitting still (blame genetics! Especially your significant other’s genetics. “She didn’t get that from me!”) In reality, it’s probably a mix of both, and then there’s also free will.
“She didn’t get that from me!”
No matter how we raise Katie, or what traits she was “born with”, she is still her own person. Sure, we can guide her, especially while she’s so young. But we can’t force her to be a certain way. Jason and I joke about how awkward it is to say “thank you” when people compliment your kids. I mean, we do it because it’s what’s socially accepted and we don’t want to look like jerks, but it is kind of bizarre when you think about it. “What beautiful children you have!” Or “She is so smart!” And you’re like “Oh thanks… we made them ourselves!” 
We didn’t teach her to be pretty.
In all honesty, the only thing I really feel that we can take credit for is Katie’s good manners. We didn’t teach her to be pretty, we couldn’t force her to learn the alphabet before she was ready, and I know I am definitely not the reason she can do the monkey bars because I can’t even do them. But we sure as hell drilled please and thank you’s into her. And she has the best manners now. (Self high-five!) As for the rest, I guess we’ll never know what makes her the unique little lady that she is. One of life’s great mysteries.
Daily Life

I think we officially have a threenager

Posted on March 27, 2018
First time getting in trouble at school today.  Or “trouble,” I suppose. Her teacher told me she wasn’t listening and refused to sit down during lunch and instead spun around in circles for the first 10 minutes… I felt partly relieved that it’s not only Jason and I having a hard time with her, partly guilty that this is somehow a result of bad parenting, and partly surprised that this is the first time she hasn’t listened to her teachers when she’s been not listening to us for months now… Isabelle was up crying last night (presumably teething) so I’m hoping maybe Katie was just tired and having a hard day, and not that she is now comfortable enough with her teachers to stop listening to them too… And definitely hoping it’s not her new threenager attitude. Please send wine.
Daily Life ExploreLongBeach

Warrior Dash 2018

Posted on March 25, 2018

Dual caption: You know he loves you when…. / ….this is life with kids.  We had such a blast today doing the Warrior Dash together! I loved the fact that we did it as a couple and it was such a fun bonding experience for the two of us! Crawling through the mud together was a first! I like that this event was good for all skills levels. It was enough of a challenge for me, as someone who works out a lot, but was still achievable for Jason, who works out occasionally.

We climbed walls, we army crawled under barbed wire, and we waded through mud pits. It was a great course for a group, for families, or even solo. And then we finished and did a smooch for the camera and got photobombed by Katie, which is pretty much our lives! I almost cropped her out, but you know what? This is us! Even when you do things without your kids, the kids are with you. You can’t escape them! We had such a great time and they even had a kid’s obstacle course! We will definitely be returning next year!!

Use my promo WDPARENTDAZE for $5 off registration in 2018.  Here is the link to their site.

Daily Life

Starting to do Family Runs Together!

Posted on March 20, 2018
Thinking back to when we used to laugh at families who run together, and here we are! We had such a good time running as a family at the pub run that we decided (I decided, or strongly suggested) that the family run with me a couple nights a week!
We used to laugh at families who run together!
Jason said he was on board with twice a week (plus he needs to get in some practice because he’s doing the Warrior Dash with me Saturday morning !) Last night was our first night and we did a 5k! K rode a lot of the way (because she wasn’t behaving and kept running onto the bike path ) and then ran the last half mile.
After we got back home, Katie was suspiciously good… 
It was nice for Jason and I to be able to go at an adult pace together for most of it and then K burned some energy at the end. AND after we got back home, she was suspiciously good… She sat at the table the whole time we ate dinner, she ate really well without us nagging, she didn’t stomp or throw anything the rest of the night (threenager life has our standards pretty low these days.) Not sure if it was the running or a coincidence but I guess we’ll see Thursday when we go out again!! .
Daily Life

Spending One on One Time with My Kids

Posted on March 14, 2018
How often do you spend one-on-one time with your kids? I guess that answer probably depends on how many kids you have… I get alone time with Isabelle every week when K goes to her grandparents, but rarely get alone time with K. Last night I took K out for a night hike (that ended up being a night rain hike!)
I rarely get alone time with K.
She was so well-behaved the entire time, we talked about her favorite things, she did a ton of pretend play, and she listened when I told her it was time to go home or she had to hold my hand crossing the street. I honestly never wanted to leave. And then I thought to myself, would she be this good all the time if we were always alone? Or was it just a lucky night?
Would she be this good all the time if we were always alone? 
And then of course I felt SO GUILTY that I can never give her my 100%. Or Isabelle. Or Jason. No one gets my 100% anymore (including me) because there are 4 people in our family. And it’s hard to juggle attention. Isabelle sometimes has to cry longer than I would like because maybe I’m dressing Katie. Katie doesn’t get my full attention when she’s acting out so we have to resort to time outs instead of me sitting down and talking with her for more than a minute.
No one gets my 100% anymore (including me)
Poor Jason is always last after the kids’ needs and usually by the time the kids go to bed, we’re so drained even our conversations are half-assed. I know that’s just how things are right now while the kids are young, but it’s tough. I really do want to start doing something alone with K once a week or so now. I think it would be good for us, even if it’s just a walk outside. How do you divide time between your family members?
Daily Life

When Your Kid is Big for their Age

Posted on March 13, 2018

“Sure you can do those monkey bars… if you can reach them.”

Guess she showed me! Who else has a kid who is really tall for their age? From the minute they start walking they can already reach up on the counters and it only gets worse from there! Pretty soon, nowhere is safe! We found out today K is almost 40 inches and she isn’t even 3 yet!

It makes me happy Isabelle is a shortie and we can put things on the back part of the counters for a while. Only 1 kid testing me at a time, please.

Daily Life

Solo Trip to Catalina Island with the Kids

Posted on March 8, 2018
12 hours after leaving this morning, we are home from Catalina Island! I had been wanting to go lately so I thought we should take the opportunity to do it before K turns 3 and we have to pay for her. It was weird packing up to be on an island!
For some reason I felt like we needed way more stuff being a ferry-ride away from home instead of a car ride
For some reason I felt like we needed way more stuff being a ferry-ride away from home instead of a car ride, but I also didn’t want to have to carry 50 lbs of stuff all day in addition to carrying Isabelle – especially because we wanted to hike. So I stressed about it a little bit, but in the end it all worked out, as it always does.
We had an amazing time, we spent too much money, we saw a pod of dolphins on the boat ride there, we hiked our longest hike together, the kids fell apart (like, so bad), we played at the beach, we watched the fish, the kids fell apart again…
Everyone was staring at me and I totally wanted to cry.
Actually on the boat ride back K was losing it so bad the ferry staff went and got the stroller so I could strap her in to keep her from going into the roped off area. Everyone was staring at me and I totally wanted to cry. When we were getting off the boat a few people stopped me and told me they’ve been there… And then on the ride home, K couldn’t stop talking about how much fun she had and how bad she wants to go back. Not anytime soon, kiddo. I am exhausted!
Of course now I’m telling myself it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
She went to bed as soon as we got back and of course now I’m telling myself it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Denial! Overall, the good outweighed the bad. We had a great time and it was a nice little getaway for the day ❤.

 

Daily Life

When You Wake Up in a Bad Mood for No Reason

Posted on February 28, 2018
Do you ever wake up in a bad mood for no reason? That was me this morning. I had an amazing birthday yesterday, I have fun birthday activities planned for the next week, literally nothing in my life has changed between yesterday and today but I woke up so cranky!
I was low on patience, and I couldn’t shake it!
The kids seemed extra needy, I felt tired even after having an extra cup of coffee, I was low on patience, and I couldn’t shake it! I tried putting on some of my favorite music and cleaning up a little bit, I stretched, and I had some tea. None of my usual tricks were working. I felt annoyed with the kids for no reason, and super guilty about being annoyed. Because “they aren’t going to be hanging off me forever so I should enjoy every second.”
I felt annoyed with the kids for no reason, and super guilty about being annoyed.
I ended up forcing myself to get out and hike. It was late in the afternoon so we didn’t have time to go far, we just did a quick 2 and a quarter miles with not much of any elevation gain (but still counting it in my 52 hike challenge because hiking with kids means I’ll take what I can get!) Within a few minutes of getting out in nature, I already felt ten times better. It was like the sounds and smells and feel of the trails were melting away my crabbiness.
I felt annoyed with the kids for no reason, and super guilty about being annoyed.
Deep down I kind of knew getting out would help, but it’s so hard to motivate yourself to do something when you’re stuck in that cranky mindset! If it was just me and K, I probably would have stayed home and grouched around all day. But that would mean carrying Isabelle around the apartment to keep her from crying and that gets old fast. I ended up having a really good time with the girls once we were out. Still feeling a little lingering crankiness though, so I think I’ll do a run tonight when Jason gets home and try for a full mental reset. What are your go-to tricks for when you wake up as a grouch-zilla?